Quotes About Marines

One did not depend on marines for good table manners. One depended on them to have the right instincts when it came to matters of life and death.

Soldiers and marines crowded the tables, rifles under their stools, hair cropped close by sadistic military barbers intent on revealing the contours of their skulls for some nefarious phrenological purpose.

...The Marines have been the first to land-on embattled beaches throughout the world-we share the unfaltering confidence of all Americans that they will land again-and land hard.

I placed the Marines where the hardest work was to be accomplished, and I never once found my confidence in them misplaced.

If you ask me why I've succeeded it's because I was in the Royal Marines. You have this unbelievable sense of achievement and of overcoming adversity. That's the confidence it breeds.

We are United States Marines, and for two and a quarter centuries we have defined the standards of courage, esprit, and military prowess.

The death rate among Marines in Iraq has been more than double that of the other services.

In white flowing Arabic script, dimmed since it had first been daubed months before, the bridge proclaimed for all to see: Fallujah—Graveyard of the Americans. Beneath it, Malay's Marines used black paint to write their message: This is for the Americans of Blackwater murdered here in 2004. Semper Fidelis 3/5 Dark Horse 9/11.

A lot of the great pieces of journalism from Iraq showed how important command influence was in violent, aggressive environments, where Marines and soldiers had a constrained set of choices to make in sudden moments.

My background is as an athlete, and you know, we in the Marines, when we want something, we go after it.

After I left the Marines in '46, I wanted to stay in the Marines; I was very happy - I loved that life.

A contingent of U.S. Marines prepared to depart as the Stars and Stripes was lowered, permanently drawing the curtains on U.S. occupation of the base that began in 1899. As President Ramos remarked, "There has been no day that foreign troops were not based on our soil," with foreign military presence finally ending after more than four hundred years.

These are Plenimaran marines, and there's not much most of them aren't capable of, if you take my meaning." "I don't think I do," said Alec, puzzled by Seregil's tone. "Then try this. They have a saying among them: 'When whores are few, a boy will do.' Got that?" "Oh." Alec felt his face go hot.

I came from a family of Marines into the family of Marines.

243.0 megacycles, known as Guard channel, which all airplanes with UHF kept tuned in for emergency use. The USAF called that frequency Navy Common. The Navy jocks said it was Air Force Common. The Marines could not have cared less.

Pilots hated to stay on Guard and clutter up the air. The Navy called it Air Force common, the Air Force called it Navy common, and the Marines said they'd use any damn frequency they wanted, Guard included.

Ever since a newsman made up the quote (some said it was some guy named Dan Rather) from a Marine about a village, "We had to destroy it to save it," the Marines were very touchy.

Where are they now that we, the men whom they sent off to war, have returned? These are commanders who have deserted their troops, and there is no more serious crime in the law of war. The Army says they never leave their wounded. The Marines say they never leave even their dead. These men have left all the casualties and retreated behind a pious shield of public rectitude. They have left the real stuff of their reputation bleaching behind them in the sun in this country.

As a group, United States Marines were world-class profanity users,

Semper Fi is short for Semper Fidelis—which means "always faithful"—it's the motto of the Marines.

Hardness," I was learning, was the supreme virtue among recon Marines. The greatest compliment one could pay to another was to say he was hard. Hardness wasn't toughness, nor was it courage, although both were part of it. Hardness was the ability to face an overwhelming situation with aplomb, smile calmly at it, and then triumph through sheer professional pride.

Strong combat leadership is never by committee. Platoon commanders must command, and command in battle isn't based on consensus. It's based on consent. Any leader wields only as much authority and influence as is conferred by the consent of those he leads. The Marines allowed me to be their commander, and they could revoke their permission at any time.

The Marines,' my dad said, 'will teach you everything I love you too much to teach you.

Infantry Marines live only and forever in the real world.